Skip to main content

Parenting During a Pandemic to Maximize Emotional Wellness



The COVID-19 pandemic has tested all of us in ways that we could never have imagined just a few months ago. We have all been pulled away from our regular routines and practices, and forced to learn, work, and live very differently. Saint David's School is in its fifth week of distance learning. Throughout this strange time, our boys have continued to learn, grow, and collaborate with each other.  Supported by their teachers, the administration and, most importantly, their families, they are doing well.

While it may seem like we've been in this "new normal" forever, it's only been a matter of weeks. As time goes on, the emotional toll can increase and negatively impact us. In this environment, it is important to be sensitive to and aware of our boys' emotional well-being, as well as our own.

Toward this end, Saint David's recently held a virtual town hall in which our Consulting Psychologist, Dr. Michael Schwartzman, shared approaches shown to effectively maximize emotional wellness during trying times. Some of the thoughts he shared with parents follow:
  • Be sure to take care of yourself; it is important to manage your own anxieties in order to effectively help children manage theirs.
  • Identify and minimize your negative feelings.
  • Maintain routines like meals, study time, exercise. They ground us. 
  • Be honest with yourself. Communicate often, increase talk time and together time.
  • Have realistic expectations. Prioritize effort over achievement. Children are feeling a lot of loss right now.
  • Minimize children's exposure to disturbing content in the media.
  • Maintain rituals. 
  • Be sympathetic; reassuring but realistic. Assure your children that you are doing everything to keep them and your family safe.

Most important, and most comforting, was the takeaway that as parents we are the experts in our children's lives. We have provided continuity, care, and assurance to our children through other disruptive times. We’ve had to help them grow and learn in a range of situations. As parents and as teachers, we need to trust our instincts. And, importantly, we must ask for help if we need it.

We are hosting follow-up sessions by division with Dr. Schwartzman this week to address specific concerns of parents in our Lower and Upper Schools, as well as a session for our faculty and staff. In addition, this Friday our community will hold a prayer service to reflect upon these times and to look to our school's spiritual pillar. With faith, fortitude, and support, we will all get through this together.


Popular posts from this blog

"The Wisdom Within" - Building Student Motivation Through Choice

In the third entry of our Teaching Boys Initiative quarterly blog series, Master Teacher Jim Barbieri explores how providing boys with agency to choose builds motivation and enhances learning. BUILDING STUDENT MOTIVATION THROUGH CHOICE By the time I was eight years old, I had become completely absorbed in all things baseball. Living in New York was perfect for a baseball fan; although I was a Mets fan thanks to my idol, Tom Seaver, I was also interested in learning about all the amazing Yankees stars of yore. How could I call myself a baseball fan if I didn’t know the history and records of stars like Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, and Yogi Berra? I loved collecting baseball cards and reading the career statistics of each player on the back. Looking through my collection one day, I discovered that I shared a birthday with the legendary Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder Roberto Clemente. At eight years old, I was crushed to hear the news that he had died tragically in a plane crash while trying to ...
Read more

"The Wisdom Within" - The Superpower of Performance

In the following entry of our Teaching Boys Initiative blog series, Saint David's Director of Music and Master Teacher Jeffrey Moore explores how participating in performances and productions build transformative competencies, transmit values, and inspire boys to excel. Jose Antonio Abreu, one of the leading educators in classical music and the founder of El Sistema said this: “Music has to be recognized as an agent of social development in the highest sense, because it transmits the highest values  — solidarity, harmony, mutual compassion. And it can unite an entire community and express sublime feelings.”¹ At Saint David’s School, performance begins in the very first years. Each class, from Pre-K through Eighth Grade, presents their work to an audience of peers and parents, whether it is a story, a skit, a play, a lecture, or a musical presentation. But the increasing complexity and demands on our boys to push themselves to another level is the key to their development and succes...
Read more

"The Wisdom Within" - Writing and Thinking

In our continuing efforts through the Teaching Boys Initiative at Saint David's School ™ , one of our visiting scholars, Dr. Ric Campbell, engages in ongoing reflective practice with our faculty. Below, Dr. Campbell shares an example of a freewriting initiative that was born from the collaboration between literature teacher Jamie MacNeille and history teacher Drew Burton, who sought to address forms of student engagement in their respective disciplines.  WRITING and THINKING:  A Learning Community Engaged in the Knowledge-Making Practices of the Disciplines “Whoa, this freewriting is really helpful !” The above quote by a sixth-grade literature student captures a revelatory moment; he has discovered the wealth of ideas at the end of his pen as he writes to describe what he is noticing in the novel the class is reading and discovers that what he notices leads to questions, and that those questions, in turn, lead to bigger ideas. “All there is to thinking is seeing something not...
Read more